Kuki-Zo Groups Were Close to Political Settlement Before Manipur Violence, Says UPF Spokesperson

New Delhi: The north-eastern state’s insurgent groups were close to finalising a political settlement with the Union government and the Manipur government a day before ethnic violence broke out in the state on early May, the spokesperson of a Kuki-Zo grouping has said.

The talks were being held under the Suspension of Operations agreement (SoO), a ceasefire pact signed in 2008 by the Centre and the Manipur government with the two principal representative bodies of Kuki-Zo armed groups, the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and the United People's Front (UPF). Under the pact, the groups would confine their armed cadres to designated camps while pursuing a negotiated political settlement.

The Wire had reported in September 2025, citing sources in the two groups, that the two sides had been close to a deal when the violence began. "KNO and UPF were on the verge of signing a political settlement with the Government of India on May 3, 2023, in Imphal. However, ethnic violence broke out in Manipur following political unrest," a source in the groups told The Wire at the time.

Aron Kipgen, a spokesperson for UPF, has now given a fuller account of those talks in an interview to The Hindu.

He said that KNO and UPF representatives met the Union government’s interlocutor A.K. Mishra and Intelligence Bureau officials in Imphal on May 2, 2023 following home minister Amit Shah’s direction to fast-track the peace process.

“The message was that SoO needs to come to an end. Meaning, if a political solution can be reached, it is time to implement it. And if a political solution cannot be reached, it is time to close the chapter,” he told the newspaper.

He recalled that the insurgent groups s had expected negotiations to continue over the following days before the teams were taken to New Delhi to sign a political settlement in the presence of Shah.

Also read: Census Deferred in Manipur Amid Calls For an ‘NRC’

“We were expecting that on May 3, the negotiation will continue, on May 4 it will continue and might continue till May 5 or 6,” he said. “Following [that], the team would have been taken to New Delhi to sign a political settlement pact in the presence of the Union home minister.”

The negotiations centred on an autonomous arrangement drawing on provisions of the Sixth Schedule of the constitution, Kipgen said, adding that then chief minister N. Biren Singh was aware of the deal. The Kuki-Zo groups had sought executive, financial and judicial powers, along with recognition of their customary practices and traditional justice mechanisms.

He noted some issues remained unresolved at the May 2 meeting but the groups believed these could be settled through further talks.

“There were some points where the interlocutor brought up something we could not agree [to]. In any negotiation, it cannot be 100 percent agreed upon. Some negotiations were kept pending, where the solution could be reached and that could be continued,” he said.

The talks were halted after violence broke out between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities the following day.

“We never believed that communal clashes in Manipur would happen on a date when the situation was on the verge of bringing a political solution,” Kipgen said.

He alleged that the violence had been planned and that Kuki-Zo houses in mixed neighbourhoods in Imphal had been selectively targeted. The mass displacement and geographical separation of the two communities after May 3, 2023 fundamentally altered the basis on which the groups had been negotiating with the Centre, he maintained.

Before the violence, the groups had sought an autonomous arrangement within Manipur. Their demand has since shifted to a separate administration, including a Union Territory with a legislature or a similar constitutional arrangement.

Also read: CRPF Sub-Inspector Injured In Violence Near Senapati-Kangpokpi Border in Manipur

“The whole community has come with one resolution that we can no longer stay under the same administration. We need a separate administration,” he said.

The Union government had conveyed through its interlocutor that it did not have a policy of creating new Union Territories, the UPF spokesperson noted. The groups have nevertheless continued to press for a constitutional arrangement that would give them a separate administration.

Nearly two months earlier, on March 10, 2023, the Biren Singh cabinet had decided to withdraw from the SoO with two of the armed groups, the Kuki National Army and the Zomi Revolutionary Army. The state government accused the two groups of instigating protests in the hills against its drive to evict alleged encroachers from reserved forest land.

More than 260 people have been killed and over 60,000 displaced since the violence began, in clashes largely between the valley-based Meitei community and the hill-based Kuki-Zo tribes. The state was placed under President's Rule in February 2025 after Biren Singh resigned. A Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP-led) government subsequently took charge in February 2026.

The ceasefire pact itself, left unrenewed since 2024, was extended in September 2025 under revised ground rules that required the groups to relocate camps and move their weapons into central paramilitary custody. It was signed again in revised form in August 2026, with the same conditions carried forward.

When a BJP-led government took charge on February 4, 2026, ending President's Rule, the written commitment on a Union Territory that the Kuki-Zo groups had sought was not given. A section of Kuki-Zo legislators joined the government, setting off shutdowns and protests in the hill districts.

Earlier this month the Kuki-Zo Council said the new government had failed to restore security and called for President's Rule to be reimposed.

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